First things first, Ctrl+b is a bit of a pain, it’s a long
way to reach for on a keyboard, and I used to using Ctrl+a from gnu screen. I am going to change it to Ctrl+a to save my fingers and to match my gnu screen memory muscles.

set -g prefix C-a

bind C-a
send-prefix

This will set the prefix -g (Globally)

One way to reload the changes is to start or reattach to a
tmux session and press Ctrl+b then ":" then type the following
command

source-file ~/.tmux.conf

The next time you could user Ctrl+a then ":" or
Ctrl+b then ":" since I did not unbind the other prefix.

List all the bindings

To list all the current bindings press Ctrl+a then ?

You can see the C-a key that was bound at the top.

To exit this mode press Ctrl+c

Another way to get this list is to run the following command

> tmux list-keys

Another useful command is

> tmux show-options -g

This will list all the current global options.

In the book tmux: Productive Mouse-Free Development by Brian
P. Hogan [1] (I think is a good book to buy, it gets you from a beginner to
an advanced tmux user) it suggest a few
bindings I thought were good to add so I did.

Here is my .tmux.conf file

set
-g prefix C-a

bind
C-a send-prefix

#Bind
new split commands

bind
| split-window -h

bind
- split-window -v

#Set
status bar on bottom

set
-g status-left 'tmux'

set
-g status-right '(Pane #P) #{=22:pane_title}" %H:%M %d-%b-%y'

#Highlight
the name of the selected window

set
-g window-status-current-fg white

set
-g window-status-current-bg red

set
-g window-status-current-attr bright

set
-g window-status-bg green

set
-g window-status-fg black

set
-g window-status-attr dim

#Borders

set
-g pane-border-fg green

set
-g pane-border-bg black

set
-g pane-active-border-fg white

set
-g pane-active-border-bg yellow

#Mouse
turned on give ability to click on pane

setw
-g mode-mouse on

set
-g mouse-select-pane on

set
-g mouse-resize-pane on

set
-g mouse-select-window on

I am going to explain what is going on section by section
here.

#Bind
new split commands

bind
| split-window -h

bind
- split-window -v

I added the ability to split the screen using Ctrl+a then |
(for vertical) and - (for horizontal)

#Set
status bar on bottom

set
-g status-left 'tmux'

set
-g status-right '(Pane #P) #{=22:pane_title}" %H:%M %d-%b-%y'

This changes the text displayed on the bottom.

Now it has "tmux" on the far left. And (Pane X) on the right hand side (far left
of the right hand side). The Pane X
displays which pane # you are on.

#Highlight
the name of the selected window

set
-g window-status-current-fg white

set
-g window-status-current-bg red

set
-g window-status-current-attr bright

set
-g window-status-bg green

set
-g window-status-fg black

set
-g window-status-attr dim

The selected Window now has a red background and white
lettering. This helps to easily identify
which window you are on.

#Borders

set
-g pane-border-fg green

set
-g pane-border-bg black

set
-g pane-active-border-fg white

set
-g pane-active-border-bg yellow

This is neat! It will highlight the selected pane.

The lower left pane is selected.

#Mouse
turned on give ability to click on pane

setw
-g mode-mouse on

set
-g mouse-select-pane on

set
-g mouse-resize-pane on

set
-g mouse-select-window on

Turn the mouse on!
Now you can use the mouse to select a window pain. You can even click on the window name in the
lower right to select another window.